Senior Research Data Engineer

City of Bristol College
Bristol
23 hours ago
Create job alert

We are seeking a visionary Senior Research Data Engineer to play a pivotal role in the newly funded BRIDE (Bristol Research and Innovation Data Engineering) Hub—a groundbreaking collaboration between the University of Bristol, University of the West of England, and Bristol NHS Group.


BRIDE will be at the forefront of transforming health outcomes by enabling secure, and innovative data flows for research across academic and clinical partners.


As Senior Research Data Engineer, you will be the technical leader driving the development of cutting‑edge data engineering solutions. The work includes:



  • Designing and implementing scalable, automated data pipelines for processing and standardising complex, multi‑modal health datasets.
  • Building robust data infrastructure to ensure interoperability and high‑quality data delivery
  • Leading a team of junior engineers and collaborating with NHS and academic partners to deliver BRIDE’s objectives.

This role offers a unique blend of technical leadership, innovation, and collaboration. You will hold honorary NHS contracts to work seamlessly across organisational boundaries, ensuring that research data infrastructure aligns with clinical and academic priorities.


If you are passionate about data engineering and want to contribute to a project that will shape the future of health data science, this is an opportunity to make a lasting difference.


This post is fixed for one year, with a strong likelihood of an extension.


Part‑time is negotiable and hybrid working is available.


What will you be doing?

As Senior Research Data Engineer, you will lead the technical development and operational delivery of the BRIDE Hub. Key responsibilities include:



  • Designing and implementing secure, scalable data infrastructure to integrate clinical and research data within a hospital system.
  • Building and maintaining data pipelines (ETL/ELT) to ingest data from clinical systems (electronic patient records, pathology, imaging, genomics, administrative) into research‑ready datasets.
  • Mapping and harmonising legacy data sources, applying NHS and international standards such as OMOP, SNOMED‑CT, and HL7 FHIR for interoperability.
  • Applying FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) to all research datasets, including metadata and provenance tracking.
  • Developing tools and dashboards for monitoring data quality, lineage, and pipeline performance.
  • Collaborating with clinicians, academics, and research leads to understand data requirements for studies, trials, and innovation projects.
  • Providing technical leadership, mentoring junior engineers and analysts, fostering skills development.

You will play a pivotal role in creating a unified research data environment for Bristol, enabling cutting‑edge health data science and supporting national research networks.


You should apply if

  • You have significant experience of working in a computationally based setting or possess a postgraduate qualification in a computationally-based field.
  • You have excellent knowledge of Python, SQL, Spark or equivalent tools.
  • You have experience of working with clinical data and possibly Secure Data Environments.
  • You enjoy working with multiple institutions to solve complex problems.

Additional information

Contract type: Open-ended with funding for 12 months (01/01/2026-31/12/2026- but can be flexible)


Work pattern: Full-time/ 1 FTE


Grade: K


School/Unit: Bristol Medical School


This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on 27/01/2026


For informal queries please contact: Dr Rachel Denholm, PI of the BRIDE hub;


Our strategy and mission

We recently launched our strategy to 2030 tying together our mission, vision and values.


We want to attract, develop, and retain individuals with different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives – particularly people of colour, LGBT+ and disabled people – because diversity of people and ideas remains integral to our excellence as a global civic institution.


We aim to be a place where everyone feels able to be themselves and do their best in an inclusive working environment where all colleagues can thrive and reach their full potential.


#J-18808-Ljbffr

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Senior Health Data Engineer & Platform Lead (Hybrid)

Senior Data Research Engineer Computer Vision

Senior Data Analyst

Senior Platform Engineer - AI MLOps Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Executive Director: BHF Data Science Centre

Data Analyst - Government Digital Service - SEO

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Machine Learning Jobs for Career Switchers in Their 30s, 40s & 50s (UK Reality Check)

Are you considering a career change into machine learning in your 30s, 40s or 50s? You’re not alone. In the UK, organisations across industries such as finance, healthcare, retail, government & technology are investing in machine learning to improve decisions, automate processes & unlock new insights. But with all the hype, it can be hard to tell which roles are real job opportunities and which are just buzzwords. This article gives you a practical, UK-focused reality check: which machine learning roles truly exist, what skills employers really hire for, how long retraining realistically takes, how to position your experience and whether age matters in your favour or not. Whether you come from analytics, engineering, operations, research, compliance or business strategy, there is a credible route into machine learning if you approach it strategically.

How to Write a Machine Learning Job Ad That Attracts the Right People

Machine learning now sits at the heart of many UK organisations, powering everything from recommendation engines and fraud detection to forecasting, automation and decision support. As adoption grows, so does demand for skilled machine learning professionals. Yet many employers struggle to attract the right candidates. Machine learning job adverts often generate high volumes of applications, but few applicants have the blend of modelling skill, engineering awareness and real-world experience the role actually requires. Meanwhile, strong machine learning engineers and scientists quietly avoid adverts that feel vague, inflated or confused. In most cases, the issue is not the talent market — it is the job advert itself. Machine learning professionals are analytical, technically rigorous and highly selective. A poorly written job ad signals unclear expectations and low ML maturity. A well-written one signals credibility, focus and a serious approach to applied machine learning. This guide explains how to write a machine learning job ad that attracts the right people, improves applicant quality and strengthens your employer brand.

Maths for Machine Learning Jobs: The Only Topics You Actually Need (& How to Learn Them)

Machine learning job adverts in the UK love vague phrases like “strong maths” or “solid fundamentals”. That can make the whole field feel gatekept especially if you are a career changer or a student who has not touched maths since A level. Here is the practical truth. For most roles on MachineLearningJobs.co.uk such as Machine Learning Engineer, Applied Scientist, Data Scientist, NLP Engineer, Computer Vision Engineer or MLOps Engineer with modelling responsibilities the maths you actually use is concentrated in four areas: Linear algebra essentials (vectors, matrices, projections, PCA intuition) Probability & statistics (uncertainty, metrics, sampling, base rates) Calculus essentials (derivatives, chain rule, gradients, backprop intuition) Basic optimisation (loss functions, gradient descent, regularisation, tuning) If you can do those four things well you can build models, debug training, evaluate properly, explain trade-offs & sound credible in interviews. This guide gives you a clear scope plus a six-week learning plan, portfolio projects & resources so you can learn with momentum rather than drowning in theory.